The news is just too depressing these days to even try to talk about it, so let’s talk about something else this week.
The time change. The screw with my schedule, make sleep even more difficult, time change!
I know we all complain about it twice every year. It’s unnecessary, we say. It was come up with in another time, for another reason, when things were so different. It has no relevance to how we live our daily lives now, except to make sleep more difficult.
Now, I will not lie to you, friends. Although I am not a fan of the time changes in general, I am less opposed to the old Fall Back time change we face this weekend. Aside from the fact that my car clock will be wrong for the next four months or so — seriously, who knew you needed a degree in astro-physics to change the time on a car? — this one is the lesser of the two evils.
In my — easily fooled — mind, I get an extra hour of sleep. Because with Fall Back, when my alarm should go off at 7 a.m., it is actually 6 a.m., meaning I get one more hour of delicious sleep.
And lets face it, when you are of a certain age — which I am — sleep is an elusive beast. You fall asleep for a while. Then you wake up and begin to ponder things. Things like, if I take the leftovers from supper for lunch, what will I make for supper?
If I get my hair cut this week, what state of grow out will I be at for the holidays?
Have they caught Murphy the Snake in Ottawa yet? Seriously, have they? He could be slithering up an Ottawa sewer pipe right now. OMG my daughter lives in Ottawa! I should phone her and tell her to put the lid down!
If there is an office potluck for Christmas this year, what will I make? Will anyone like it? You know how judgemental potluckers are.
Why does that long-haired guy on The Voice keep winning when it’s obvious that he can’t sing?
And also according to The Voice, gig is now a verb. When did that happen?
I need new pants.
Will Cardi B and Nicki Minaj ever make up? Why can’t we all just get along!
If I don’t do laundry this weekend, will I have enough socks?
These are the serious, weighty issues that keep me from sleeping.
And then you toss and you turn. Until you fall asleep an hour before the alarm — a deep, delicious sleep that could go on for hours. If you hadn’t set an alarm.
But not next Monday. No, next Monday, that deep, delicious sleep will be extended by an hour because we fell back. Unless I just toss and turn for an extra hour to make up for the time change. Which is a definite possibility, given how little it takes to disrupt my sleep patterns.
Anyhoo, my point is, the time changes are unnecessary.
Now, the provincial government says it is really not interested in addressing the time change, they have other, meatier matters with which to concern themselves. And it’s true, they do, although it has been acknowledged that there is interest among the common folk.
Last spring, Premier John Horgan was quoted by CBC as saying, “Daylight Saving Time and the timing of the holiday in February are two issues that I didn’t expect to have as much interest in, but I’m excited that British Columbians are sending me their points of view on those, and we’ll make decisions on those when it’s appropriate.”
You will notice that the holiday did in fact change, despite Horgan’s declaration, so anti-time changers, take heart! Soon the time may be appropriate!
Our friends in Grand Forks actually tabled a resolution to abolish the time change at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities in 2017. Yet here it is, 2018, and nothing has happened.
Perhaps if we mounted a town by town campaign. After all, Creston has opted out of the time change. Why can’t Kimberley? Or Cranbrook?
Why can’t we do away with a pointless, archaic thing that messes with everyone’s schedules?
I tell you, if post-menopausal women were in charge, the times would not be a’changing.